


collect two kisses when you pass go

by johnnys



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: F/M, Family Game Night, Jeno and Hyuck are twins, M/M, but seriously johnyong are the most domestic, everyone forgets about jeno, hyuck has a gay panic for once, johnny is so overdramatic, johnyong rise, monopoly is a relationship ender, taeil is really ordinary but really hot, this was going to be a oneshot but yeah it got long, yangyang is kind of a bitch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25021966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnnys/pseuds/johnnys
Summary: family game night is supposed to be a bit of fun on a wednesday night, not the breeding ground for temper tantrums or unexpected gay panics.when donghyuck joins, and the party of three becomes a party of four, he experiences both of these things - and more. (none of it is his fault, of course. it's all because of those weird feelings he gets around his brother's friend taeil, which turn into a crush that is growing quickly out of his control.)
Relationships: Jang Yeeun/Lee Jeno, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Moon Taeil, Lee Taeyong/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 11
Kudos: 46





	1. Family Game Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celestaeil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestaeil/gifts).



> this is a gift for the wonderful celestaeil that i've been working on for a long time! (hope you love it as much as i do!)
> 
> it started out as a oneshot but once it got over 10k words (and 30 pages in google docs) i figured i would post it as a multi-chapter work for now to feel some sense of accomplishment.
> 
> when it's finished, i may post the whole thing as a separate chapter so you can read it all offline :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck gets invited to Game Night with the hyungs.

It's a warm Wednesday evening in June when everything really begins. The board games are stacked on the coffee table in the living room, the mood lighting is set, and the pizza is on its way. 

_ Game Night. _

If you asked each of the Lee Brothers what 'game night' meant before Johnny From Chicago walked into their lives (otherwise known as Johnny Suh, and Taeyong's boyfriend of nearly four years), they'd each have a very different definition of the term. For oldest brother Taeyong, it would be a night-in curled up on the couch with Animal Crossing running on his Nintendo Switch. Even at twenty-four he's obsessed with the game, and sometimes hours disappear without him noticing until they're gone. Often, he'll play whilst snuggling with Johnny on the sofa in their apartment, and will wake up after a long Animal Crossing stint with Johnny's head in his lap, snoring softly. It's a way to switch off his brain for a while at least, when he's not absorbed in an art project or a gig for the animation company he's recently started working for. 

“Johnny?” Taeyong calls from the tiny space they call a kitchen, his voice halfway between a whine and a purr. 

“Hm?”

Taeyong frowns as he rummages through the cramped kitchen cupboards. “Where are my pretzels?” he almost accuses, voice now muffled since his head is somewhere inside the snack cupboard.

Johnny pokes his head around the kitchen door, arriving almost instantly at the sound of trouble. “Huh?” He fights the urge to laugh when he sees Taeyong’s butt sticking up in the air with the way he’s contorted himself to reach the very back of the cupboard. 

“My mini pretzels!” Taeyong huffs. “I can't find them anywhere.” He falls back out of the cupboard onto the cheap linoleum flooring the previous owner put down, and looks up at Johnny with a pout on his lips and deep dissatisfaction in his eyes.

It’s hard not to melt when Taeyong’s so adorable looking at him like that, but Johnny does his best. “Oh, they're in the fridge next to the beer,” he says casually, like he’s known this the entire time Taeyong’s been ransacking his own kitchen. He can’t help but mess with his boyfriend a little, because the reaction is enough to set him off laughing for real.

Taeyong stares at him, mouth agape, and then scrambles over to the refrigerator. “Why would you put them in the fridge?” he demands incredulously.

Johnny struggles to answer that one as he tries to keep a straight face. “I don't know…” he says with an exaggerated shrug, “it was kinda just… automatic when I put the shopping away that time, I guess.”

“They're gonna be all cold now,” Taeyong sighs.

Out of his younger twin brothers, Jeno (the older twin) would take a completely different meaning from the term 'game night' and would probably challenge you to an impromptu soccer game in the backyard. He's been obsessed with the sport since he started playing at six, and is now playing for the university team as a freshman. Unlike his twin, however, he's more of a team player when it comes to competition. He's a leader but takes direction well, and likes to get everyone involved. It's just too bad that  _ Johnny From Chicago _ is more of an American football guy than a soccer nerd.

If you asked the younger twin Donghyuck the same question (younger by only two minutes, he'll always add), he would definitely have a  _ solo  _ game night. This would probably consist of him shutting the door on his annoying family and playing multiplayer games of League of Legends on his enormous computer set-up all night. It's not that he doesn't  _ like _ his family, it's just that Taeyong's extent of gaming is Animal Crossing, and Jeno is practically a technophobe with the rate he can sprint away from a technology-related crisis. It's ridiculous because Jeno is the sort of guy who thinks he can fix any problem from a flat tire to a blocked toilet, but he will give up at the speed of light when his computer shows him the loading screen of death.

“Can Jeno really not make it tonight?” Johnny wonders aloud as his boyfriend rescues the mini pretzels from the bottom shelf of the fridge. 

“He’s got soccer practise.”

“Soccer,” Johnny scoffs. “Play a real sport.”

Taeyong shoots him a withering look.

“Kidding!” Johnny says, holding up his hands in surrender.

“You know he’s always got soccer practise on Wednesdays,” Taeyong says.

Johnny leans against the doorframe. “Well, why don’t we change Game Night to… I dunno… a Friday instead?” he suggests.

“Because you finish early on Wednesdays, stupid. We’ve been over this.” Taeyong’s eyes are fixed on the multi-packs of beer cans at the bottom of his refrigerator, almost as if he’s counting the sheer number of them. “Why do we have so much beer?”

“I like beer,” Johnny answers in his own defence. When Taeyong throws him a raised eyebrow and a questioning look, he’s quick to add, “I thought it would be fun. It’s been a long week.”

“It’s only Wednesday,” Taeyong points out. He’s still sitting on the floor with the refrigerator door wide open, contemplating whether or not to take the beer out. At the same time, his knees are getting cold through the enormous holes in his skinny jeans, and leaving the fridge door open is wasting electricity.

“I know, baby, _three_ _whole_ _days_ ,” says Johnny in a wheedling tone. He steps into the kitchen and crouches by the fridge to take out the first multi-pack of beer, smiling in the most persuasive way he can muster. “Besides, you won’t have to drink much anyway.”

Taeyong watches Johnny pick up the beers, muscles flexing in his biceps (probably on purpose). “Are you calling me a lightweight?” he accuses, though he doesn’t put up much of a fight because he knows his boyfriend is right.

Johnny stops to lean in and press his lips to Taeyong’s cheekbone. “Yes,” he says matter-of-factly. “But you’re really cute when you’re drunk. I mean, cuter than usual.”

Taeyong rolls his eyes. “You’re the worst,” he tells him, and grabs a fistful of Johnny’s t-shirt to pull him in and kiss him properly - heavier, deeper, until the room is spinning and Game Night is the last thing on their minds.

But when Johnny pulls away, he’s smirking. “I know,” he says.

The moment is shattered by a muffled shout of victory from another room in the apartment, probably something screamed into a headset at a particularly irritating opponent. 

“ _ Yes! Fuck you, loser!” _

Johnny stands and offers Taeyong a hand up from the floor. He kicks the refrigerator shut with his foot and glances in the direction of the sound. “Is Donghyuck really planning on staying over?” he asks.

“Yeah, I think so,” Taeyong shrugs. He's cold now, so his hands disappear under the sleeves of the sweatshirt he's recently stolen from Johnny. He grabs his bag of mini pretzels and follows Johnny into the living room. “He said something about the people in his dorm being really loud.”

“That was Monday’s excuse,” Johnny mutters. As much as he loves Taeyong’s younger brothers and would like to have them over more often, he knows the real reason Donghyuck is always around. He’s managed to stash his entire gaming set-up in the tiny spare bedroom (which is more like a cupboard than an actual room) and will drop by almost every night to use it. 

Taeyong puts the pretzels down next to the Monopoly box. “You know he can’t play his games at the dorm,” he reasons. “He’d keep his roommate up all night.”

“He’d keep the  _ whole university _ up all night,” Johnny grunts. Donghyuck is a particularly loud gamer, and everyone knows it. Johnny is especially aware of this fact when he’s trying to fall asleep next to Taeyong and all he can hear is Donghyuck cursing other players in the spare room.

“At least we get to see him more often!” Taeyong places a hand on Johnny’s shoulder and draws circles with the pad of his thumb. He's desperately optimistic because he knows how much Johnny wants to be accepted by his family.

Johnny looks at the Monopoly box in disappointment. “Honestly, I find it insulting that he won’t participate in Game Night,” he admits.

“Unfortunately, he prefers League of Legends to hanging out with the hyungs,” Taeyong says, and he wraps his hands around Johnny's arm comfortingly.

Johnny thinks Donghyuck’s game preference is categorically wrong.

In Johnny’s humble opinion, a  _ proper  _ game night means board games in front of the fire and eleven pizza boxes demolished by ten o'clock. This is why the twins never attend the weekly game night at Taeyong and Johnny's place. Jeno always has practise on Wednesdays with the university soccer team, and when he’s not training he’s trying to find a spare minute to spend with his girlfriend. Donghyuck, meanwhile, would rather be pulling an all-nighter on his game consoles than moving little metal dogs around a Monopoly board in his older brother's living room.

Johnny just wants a proper  _ family  _ game night for once, but that’s also pretty hard to achieve when his own family are an ocean away, and Taeyong’s parents are still having a difficult time accepting the fact that their son is gay. 

So, when they hold Game Night in their tiny apartment every Wednesday evening, it only ever has a turnout of three - Johnny, Taeyong, and their now-mutual friend Moon Taeil. 

“Was that the doorbell?”

“That’ll be Taeil!” Taeyong bounces over to the front door, eager to get Game Night started and lift the mood. 

Taeil is a year older than his friends at twenty-five, and when Taeyong opens the door he's carrying a rather large guitar case and a bottle of wine. He lives alone and isn't the sort of person to go out much, so he's become a more recent addition to Family Game Night (which isn't exactly family-exclusive anymore). The main reason he's invited over every Wednesday evening is because he's a fan of Monopoly, and also that he's one of Taeyong's closest friends. By association (and also due to a mutual love of board games) he's now also Johnny's friend.

"I brought wine," he says almost apologetically, upon entering the apartment. "I won it in the bingo in a team meeting at work, but I don't really drink wine so I figured you guys might get better use out of it…"

Taeyong flings his arms around his friend's neck and hugs him warmly, though Taeil doesn't exactly have an arm free to hug him back. "Thanks, I like a bit of wine in front of the TV on a Friday night."

"He falls asleep within the first ten minutes of an episode," Johnny adds. He brings Taeil in for a bro hug, once he's passed the wine to Taeyong, and takes the brown collared jacket from him to hang up.

"Taeil  _ knows _ I'm a lightweight, babe," Taeyong says, rolling his eyes. He puts the wine next to the pretzels, and the three of them scatter across the sofa and beanbags in the living room.

"Everyone knows," Taeil chimes in with a smile. 

“Alright, shut up now, Taeil,” Taeyong scoffs. He tears open his bag of mini pretzels and starts crunching on them. Everyone is desperate for the pizza to arrive.

Johnny’s eyes dart from his pretzel-crunching boyfriend to the Monopoly box that sits in the middle of the coffee table. “So… Monopoly?”

_ "Loser!" _

The three of them sit frozen, with Johnny's outstretched hand hovering over the Monopoly box. 

_ "Don't fucking come at me just because I'm better than you." _

Taeil's eyes widen in confusion. Taeyong just shoves another handful of pretzels in his mouth.

_ "Jesus Christ, fine! Fucking report me then, if you can't face the fact that I completely destroyed you." _

"Tae…" says Taeil quietly, just about managing to speak up between the muted outbursts from somewhere else in the apartment. "You don't happen to have an angry burglar hanging around, do you?"

Taeyong nearly spits pretzel crumbs in his face, but he controls himself at the last minute. He shakes his head at his friend and sighs. " _ That _ would be my little brother Donghyuck."

_ "Fucking bullshit." _

"Oh," Taeil says. He pauses, then adds, "I've never met your brothers before."

"You're the lucky one then," Johnny chimes in with a laugh. Taeyong gives him a back-handed slap to the chest and Johnny falls silent.

"He's competing in an online tournament, or something," Taeyong says, struggling to remember exactly what Donghyuck had told him on his way through the front door earlier that day.

"But he won't compete in an actual competition," Johnny says, with emphasis on the word  _ actual _ . 

The other two look at him and he nods towards the board games. 

"By actual competition, I mean Game Night," he adds flatly. "If that wasn't already clear."

"He isn't usually here on a Wednesday," Taeil states, in that matter-of-fact tone he always seems to use. "Do you think he’ll want to join us?”

“ _ Noooo _ ,” Taeyong says firmly.

“ _ Yessss _ ,” Johnny disagrees.

Taeil considers it for a moment and looks down at the Monopoly box. When he looks up again, Taeyong is shaking his head whilst Johnny is enthusiastically nodding. “Monopoly is always better with more players,” Taeil reasons.

Taeyong just shrugs and munches on his pretzels. “Well, you can ask him,” he says. “There’s no way he’ll ever say yes.”

No one is quite sure whether Taeil takes that statement as a challenge or not, but he gets to his feet in a noble, quest-like manner, and accepts the challenge all the same. “Which room is it?”

Taeyong and Johnny both respond in sync. “Second door on your right.”

So Taeil ventures further into the apartment - to the very back of the apartment, in fact, if you’re judging distance from the front door - and bypasses the main bedroom to the second closed door. He hesitates for a moment, unsure of how he should greet someone who isn’t quite a stranger (since he’s Taeyong’s younger brother and all) but isn’t quite an acquaintance yet. He ultimately decides to knock.

“I  _ told _ you I’m busy, hyung.”

Okay… not exactly the best start. But winners never quit, right? Taeil straightens his shoulders, turns the handle, and steps into the box-sized cupboard that the local residents call The Spare Room.

And that - in that unprecedented moment - is when Lee Donghyuck’s life officially changes.

There's a man standing in the doorway to the spare room and the minute Donghyuck turns his head, he's certain this man is shrouded in golden light. He's like an angel, or something - maybe something like a Greek god (if Greek gods aren't particularly tall, and wear flannel shirts). His skin is lightly sunkissed, his hair (cut short) is somewhat sexy, and Donghyuck needs to remember to breathe. Clearly all of that analysis of this man must be fact, not opinion. Although, it isn't weird for a guy to find another guy attractive, right?

Donghyuck gapes. (He feels like an idiot, sitting there in his sweatpants with his mouth hanging open.)

_ Right? _

"Do you… want to play?" The strange man's lips are moving but Donghyuck can't quite process what he's saying.

_ Do you want to play?  _ What the heck does that mean? Do you want to play…  _ what _ , exactly? Donghyuck can still feel himself blinking gormlessly at the guy, but his brain can't bring itself to respond. On the other hand, he's pretty sure his brain will say  _ yes _ faster than the speed of light to anything this man asks.

(The internal realisation is somewhat terrifying.)

Eventually, all he can manage to say is, “I’m… Donghyuck.”

Great. Now he sounds like a complete dumbass.

“Oh, right,” the man chuckles sheepishly, bowing his head in what seems to be embarrassment. (Do Greek gods even get embarrassed?) “Sorry, I forgot we’ve never met. I’m Taeil.”

Another long pause.

“Your brother’s friend.”

And that is when Donghyuck’s brain truly refuses to function. Sure, he’s heard of Taeil - Taeyong’s university friend who he has somehow miraculously never met. But  _ that  _ Taeil is supposed to be the loser who works in accounts, lives alone, and whose highlight of the week is the bingo at work after the Friday team meetings.  _ This  _ Taeil is everything  _ but  _ a loser. Donghyuck finds himself majorly confused.

“Ah, yeah,” he laughs nervously after too many moments have passed. “And you’re here because…?”

Taeil’s eyebrows twitch as he tries to figure this kid out. “It’s Game Night,” he says, like it’s self-explanatory enough.

For some reason, Donghyuck feels awfully defensive - probably because human beings aren’t supposed to be made that pretty. So even though he wants to say, “YES!” in all capitals, and jump into Taeil’s arms and do whatever he says, Donghyuck decides to be petty about it.

“Yeah,” he says. “ _ Family _ Game Night.” He stares at Taeil pointedly.

“I…” Taeil swallows his objections and tries again. He can’t let Taeyong win this one. He  _ will  _ convince Donghyuck to play. “I’m here every week,” he says, “and Monopoly hits you with an adrenaline rush like nothing else can.”

Donghyuck scoffs despite himself. “Right.”

“I just asked if you want to join us, that’s all,” Taeil says. He’s almost defeated, because he has no idea how to make board games appeal to teenagers.

“Oh, did you?” Donghyuck asks, his tone heavily laced with sarcasm, “I couldn’t hear you from all the way over there in Loserville.”  _ That was lame. _

Taeil finally lets out a sigh. “So you don’t want to play,” he states, starting to turn back towards the door of the spare room. “That’s fine, I just wanted to put the offer out there. Enjoy… whatever you were in the middle of doing…”

“But…” Donghyuck’s words die in his throat and he instantly regrets his initial reaction to Moon Taeil barging into his life. “Wait!”

Taeil raises his eyebrows, kind of like a dad waiting for a reasonable explanation.

“I… didn’t say I  _ didn’t  _ want to play,” Donghyuck says shortly. He stands, to make his point clearer, but he's surprised to find that he's at least an inch or two taller than the older man. He coughs and continues. “I just thought I would ruin your game, since you’d all lose to me so fast.”

“I see,” Taeil says. “So you  _ do  _ want to play?”

“I do want to play.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as a side note, this universe i'm writing in is a variation on my usual nct universe which i write most often - lovingly referred to as 'the johnyong universe'. in the regular johnyong universe, johnny and taeyong are always in a pre-existing relationship, and jeno and donghyuck are taeyong's younger twin brothers. usually, i freak out readers with bi!jeno and straight!hyuck (renjun is usually the love interest for jeno because i adore noren with all my heart) but in this one i went for hyuckil. anyway, that's if you were interested in where all of this is coming from lmao, technically this is an au of my own au ???
> 
> leave me a comment, i love to read them <3


	2. Monopoly Money

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Monopoly game lasts three hours. Taeyong gives up after one and a half.

“ _ Now _ it’s starting to feel like a proper Family Game Night,” Johnny says, and there’s a wickedly pleased grin that’s starting to spread across his face. 

And it is… sort of. The pizzas have arrived and one box has already been demolished in the space of about sixty seconds, and deciding which Monopoly piece is whose has turned into a heated debate. Taeyong’s starting to think things would have been less of a competition if certain people weren’t involved, because now his boyfriend and his brother are busy arguing over who gets to be the car.

“Yongie, can you please tell your brother that he can’t be the car?” says Johnny, holding the little metal car within his grasp. “I literally work for Hyundai.”

“Hyuck, choose something else,” Taeyong tells him, which makes Donghyuck pout in annoyance. “You haven’t even got your licence yet.”

Donghyuck sighs loudly. “Fine, I’ll be the boat then.”

“It’s a battleship, actually,” Taeil points out. He’s trying to be helpful and informative, but all he gets for his efforts is a withering glare from Donghyuck.

“What are  _ you  _ then?” Donghyuck asks, in such a way that Taeil feels as if the question is some sort of personal attack.

“I’m the wheelbarrow,” Taeil answers.

“Why would you choose the  _ wheelbarrow _ ?” Donghyuck scoffs. “That’s so lame.”  _ You’re lame _ , his brain tells him, because why the heck is he being so rude to arguably the most attractive guy in the room? (He also can’t figure out why his brain is so insistent on thinking that Taeil is attractive.)

“Because I’m always the wheelbarrow?” Taeil says with a frown. He stares at the silver piece in his hand, wondering if there should have been a different answer. “And… because I like gardening?” he adds.

“Right, whatever,” Taeyong cuts in, eager to get started (because the sooner it starts, the sooner it ends), “I’ll be the dog.”

Johnny smirks and leans in, lowering his voice just enough for everyone to  _ still  _ hear what he says. “Because you’re my bitch?”

Taeyong’s mouth falls open, and he tries to hide the smile that immediately springs up onto his lips. He can’t quite hide the persistent blush that colours his cheeks, though, so he pushes Johnny away. “Shut up,” he says. “And get me another slice of pizza.”

Johnny smirks, but obediently feeds his boyfriend another slice of Hawaiian.

Soon enough, the game is underway and Donghyuck is snatching up properties left, right and centre. He has to fight Johnny for the expensive ones near PASS GO which bring in the most rent, and the competition quickly grows fierce. Taeil picks up a whole line of the cheapest properties, which seems like a ‘slow and steady wins the race’ sort of approach to the game, whilst Taeyong eats as much pizza as he can physically manage. Johnny’s already on his third can of beer before all the properties have been bought, and this only adds fuel to the fire. (Taeyong’s only had less than half a can, but Donghyuck’s pretty sure he’s already a little drunk.)

“Hyung, pass me a beer,” Donghyuck says, as casually as possible to see if he can get away with it. He’s technically passed the legal age to drink in Korea, but whether Taeyong will simply hand alcohol over to him is another— 

“Mm.” 

_ That was… unexpectedly easy. _

Taeyong holds out a can with a lazy wrist, waiting for Donghyuck to take it. He’s already leaning against Johnny’s arm, having lost complete interest in the competition.

Donghyuck grins and takes the beer in both hands. The aluminium is still cool from the refrigerator, even though it’s been over an hour since Johnny took them out. Donghyuck wedges his thumb under the tab, attempting to open the can, but can’t quite manage it by himself.

“Here,” Taeil says, hand outstretched expectantly. Donghyuck passes the beer can over, mouth slightly agape, and watches as Taeil pops the tab and grabs a straw from the coffee table for him. He hands it back without even batting an eye.

Donghyuck stares at him, and then eventually takes a sip. “Thanks,” he mutters.

Taeil just kind of shrugs, like it's not even a big deal or anything. Donghyuck continues to sip beer through his straw while sneaking occasional glances at the older man.

"Donghyuck-ah, it's your turn!" Johnny says in a sing-song tone. He pushes the dice across the board and waits in anticipation.

Donghyuck rolls.

"And it's a… five!" Johnny exclaims in delight. He moves Donghyuck's battleship aggressively onwards five spaces. "One, two, three, four, five. That'll be $1500 please."

"What?" Donghyuck practically spits out his beer to stare at his new position on the board.

"You're on Park Lane," Johnny says, waving the property card in his face. "Pay up."

Donghyuck groans when he sees the number of houses and hotels on Johnny’s property. He groans even harder when he looks down at the dwindling pile of Monopoly money in front of him. “That’s not fair!” he complains. 

“I play by the rules, kid.”

“But I’ll go bankrupt!”

Taeyong sighs from where he’s currently almost lying in Johnny’s lap. “You can just have all my money, Hyuckie,” he mumbles. Donghyuck is ready to take him up on that offer, but Johnny interjects before he even gets the chance.

“What?” Johnny looks down at his boyfriend, aghast. “Baby, that’s not how the game works...”

“Mm,” Taeyong says, “but we’ve been here for three hours already.” He yawns and shuffles down on the sofa so he's all curled up in Johnny's lap, and the action in itself is so cute that Johnny almost loses all of his resolve to play Monopoly  _ properly _ . It's weird, but Taeyong almost acts like a cat when he's tired or drunk… or both.

"Maybe we should just end the game and count up the money," Taeil suggests. He's doing his best to help the situation, even though he knows by now that Johnny prefers to win by destroying every other competitor.

Donghyuck's gaze shifts so that he's lowkey staring at Taeil again, watching him strum gently at the guitar that rests in his lap while he waits for his turn to roll the dice. It feels stupid to think it, but there's something…  _ magical _ about the guy. He's so annoyingly normal, and boring, and acts both like an old man and a little boy  _ and _ a 'cool' dad all at the same time. Yet, somewhere buried in all of that, he  _ is _ kind of cool. Even if he does like gardening… and bingo. (Donghyuck can't bring himself to comprehend how  _ anyone _ can enjoy bingo.)

"Fine," Johnny grumbles eventually, because Taeyong's arms are latched around his waist, face pressed against his chest, and it's so unbearably cute that he can't say no to him. "Let's just count up the money, then."

"Alright," Taeil says with some level of enthusiasm in his voice. He abruptly stops strumming and puts down his guitar to count up his Monopoly money. It's not as if he comes here to win, or that he even really cares too much about the game, but it would be a nice end to the night.

"You still owe me $1500 in rent," Johnny reminds Donghyuck, holding out his hand expectantly until the paper is slapped into it.

When all the money has been counted and verified… Johnny wins anyway.

"Yes!"

And Donghyuck loses.

"...fucking brilliant."

Taeil comes in second, because slow and steady really  _ does _ win the race - unless you're racing against Johnny From Chicago, who is a little too competitive for his own good. Taeyong comes third, but hands over all his money to Donghyuck to stop him whining.

In the end, Donghyuck walks out of the game in third place. Taeyong doesn't really care about coming last (or breaking the rules by giving his little brother all his money). He's actually too drunk to care at this point.

"This is how you play a real game of Monopoly, people," Johnny says. He goes to stand, but can't since Taeyong is still lying in his lap. So he raises his arms in a speech-like manner instead. "Winning a game like this is like having some shit like Harvard on your resumé."

Taeil squints his eyes. 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Donghyuck says. He pushes the board lazily off the coffee table so all the pieces go flying across the floorboards. "You would never beat me at League of Legends."

Johnny scoffs. "Watch me."

"Babe, you've never even played League of Legends," Taeyong murmurs.

"Hey, shh," Johnny says. He strokes Taeyong's honey-coloured hair and pushes it off his face. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"Why don't we play something different next week?" is Taeil's next suggestion.

Johnny blinks at him. He's also a little bit tipsy by now, but he's pretty sure Taeil just said— 

"Something… different?"

Donghyuck leans back into the beanbag he's sitting on and raises an eyebrow in Taeil's direction. "Like what?"

"Like…I don't know," Taeil says. He looks around the room for inspiration, and his eyes land on the TV that's planted in the corner. "I could bring my Wii."

" _ You _ have a  _ Wii _ ?" Donghyuck asks, taken by surprise. He almost wants to laugh in Taeil's face.

"Mm-hm." Taeil nods, like it's no big deal. "It's the old one, but we could play Mario Kart. Or Wii Sports."

"Oh my god, the tennis," Taeyong giggles.

Donghyuck snorts.

"But Monopoly is a tradition now," Johnny whines. "We've played it for a whole three weeks in a row already…"

"And before that, we played Scrabble for two months straight," Taeil points out. He starts mindlessly picking up all the Monopoly notes off the floor. "Why not change it up a little?"

"But Wii Sports is a  _ video game _ ."

"You can hardly call it that," Donghyuck says, rolling his eyes skywards.

"I want to play tennis," Taeyong mumbles sleepily, pawing at Johnny's chest while his eyelids droop.

Again, Johnny has a really hard time saying no to Taeyong, so he begrudgingly backs down. "Alright," he says (rather flatly), "you can bring your dumb Wii next week, Taeil."

It may not be the exact image of Johnny's childhood - where board games and  _ only _ board games should be played - but he's willing to overlook that fact. Game Night is slowly heading in the direction of  _ Family _ Game Night, and if a dumb video game like Wii Sports or Mario Kart will keep Donghyuck interested, Johnny will give it a try. (He may not have played Mario Kart in a few years, but he's still going to beat everyone else. Again.)

"Great," Taeil says, and he says it with this small smile that makes Donghyuck's heart do a weird somersault thing in his chest. "Well, I should probably get going. Enjoy the wine."

He starts packing the guitar back in its case, and puts the pile of Monopoly back on the coffee table. (Donghyuck almost feels bad for tipping the board on the floor in the first place.) The three of them watch as Taeil grabs his jacket from the hallway and puts it on, ready to leave. (Well, it's actually just Donghyuck watching, because Taeyong is practically asleep, and Johnny is much more interested in watching Taeyong sleep.)

Just when they are all convinced that Taeyong is truly asleep, he says, "Hyuckie, don't you have an early lecture tomorrow?"

Donghyuck frowns. "How would you know? It's almost like you have my schedule memorised— oh, shit, you probably do."

"Mm."

"I can drive you back to the dorms," Johnny suddenly offers. It's a nice gesture on the surface, but really he's just eager to get Donghyuck out of the apartment.

"No… I will," Taeyong argues, starting to sit up and rub his eyes. "You don't know which building he's in."

"But you can't drive, baby. You're drunk."

"So are you."

"But I literally work for Hyundai…"

Taeil, who's still standing near the front door with his guitar case, interrupts them both. "I could drop Donghyuck off on my way home," he suggests, like it's a No Big Deal kind of suggestion, like it's not the kind of sentence to make Donghyuck stop breathing for a second.

(Spoiler - it does. And it  _ is _ A Big Deal.)

Johnny and Taeyong stare at Taeil like he's crazy. There's a long silence where everyone seems to weigh up their options, and Donghyuck tries to decide whether getting in Taeil's car would be a good idea or not. He decides he must be slightly drunk, because it sounds like a fucking  _ great _ idea at the moment, even though it makes his heart want to stop beating.

After what seems like a long time (but is really only a moment or two), Taeyong says, "Hyuckie's dorm isn't even on your way home." 

(At least, that's what it sounds like. No one can really tell for sure, because Taeyong is mumbling his words in a cute sort of baby voice, and it's hard to make anything out.)

"It isn't much of a detour," Taeil reasons, if only to make Donghyuck feel more assured and less burdened. "Anyway, I'm the only sober one here, so logically I should drive."

"You aren't  _ sober _ ," Johnny laughs. It's the stupidest laugh Donghyuck has ever heard come out of the guy's mouth.

"I am," Taeil insists, rolling his eyes. "You guys are just too drunk to notice."

"Taeil, stop  _ lying _ ," Taeyong giggles. He rolls over on the couch and stretches out his limbs before curling up again.

"I'm driving!" Johnny says loudly, before dissolving into a fit of giggles with Taeyong.

"I'm  _ leaving _ ," Donghyuck blurts quickly. He scrambles to his feet, grabbing his phone and his backpack from the hallway. It's time to evacuate the apartment as fast as he can.

"Do you need to get anything else?" Taeil asks as he watches Donghyuck shove his feet into a pair of Nikes.

"Nope," Donghyuck says. He shakes his head fervently and looks towards the front door. "Can we go now?"

Taeil studies him, observing the shift in attitude from earlier, until he hears Johnny and Taeyong start laughing all over again. "Sure," he says to Donghyuck, before sticking his head round the corner. "Text me in the morning, Yong," he adds. "I can bring you hangover soup before work."

Taeyong shuffles round so he can look at him with big round eyes. "But I'm not drunk!" he says in dismay. "So I won't be hungover…"

"Yeah, yeah." Taeil smiles and heads out, letting the front door shut quietly behind him. He follows Donghyuck to the elevator and they take it down to the ground floor without much talking. It's only when they're out in the open air, heading towards Taeil's car, that Donghyuck finally speaks up.

"You drive a  _ Tesla _ ?" he questions, and it's almost like an accusation with the way his jaw drops. 

"It's the company car," Taeil answers bashfully, getting out his keys. "It's not like I own it outright."

"But still," Donghyuck emphasises. "It's a fucking  _ Tesla _ ." He suddenly feels extremely poor standing next to Taeil and the sleek black automobile.

Taeil fights the urge to laugh, caught halfway between amusement and embarrassment as he loads his guitar case into the back seat. "Just get in," he says. "It's getting late."

Donghyuck skips around to the passenger seat, still in awe of the impressive vehicle. "Oh, is this late for you, Grandpa?" he asks, feigning innocence as he opens the car door. "It's only just gone eleven."

Taeil slides into the driver's seat, and they both close their doors almost in sync. "Some of us have to work in the morning."

"Sounds better than going to class," Donghyuck snorts. 

He thinks about putting his feet up on the dashboard, but the car is expensive and he doesn't want to risk pissing Taeil off properly yet. (If he didn't already manage to piss him off earlier. Taeil just doesn't seem like the kind of guy who can  _ get _ angry.)

Taeil turns his headlights on and pulls out of the apartment complex parking lot onto the main road. "You won't be saying that when you're practically working a zero hours contract," is his advice, which pretty much goes over Donghyuck's head.

"You drive a Tesla," Donghyuck reminds him, as if  _ that _ explains everything.

"And I have to be pretty much always on call if I want to get paid," Taeil says.

"At least you  _ get  _ paid."

They drive along in silence through the flashing lights of the busy Seoul streets, and even though the sky is dark, it almost still feels like daytime. The lights of other cars are kind of messing with Donghyuck's eyes though, but maybe that's because of the ambiguous number of beers he drank earlier. He glances over at Taeil, who kind of looks something like a drama actor sitting at the wheel of a Tesla. The light of the passing billboards outside his window cast his face in shadow until they reach a crossing and a set of traffic lights and he pulls to a stop.

"Lee Donghyuck," Taeil says suddenly, with an element of panic in his voice. 

"What?" Donghyuck returns, feeling marginally attacked by the older man's tone.

"Seatbelt," Taeil tells him firmly.

"But—"

"Now, please."

The lights change and the other cars begin to move, but the black Tesla stays put. Taeil raises an eyebrow at Donghyuck, waiting expectantly.

"But I don't need it," Donghyuck reasons, glancing anxiously at the cars in the rearview mirror.

"It's the law."

Donghyuck lets out a loud huff. "It won't even make a difference, because you're not going to crash."

"I'm not moving until you do your seatbelt up," Taeil says simply. It's obvious that he and Donghyuck share a common personality trait — their stubbornness.

"Hyung, the cars—"

Taeil just continues to wait. The cars behind them beep their horns loudly, and gradually more and more begin to lose patience. "One," Taeil starts to count, "two… three—"

"You're not my dad!" Donghyuck almost yells at him, before his voice drops to an angry mutter. "So stop fucking acting like it." He jams the seatbelt into place and glowers at the road ahead as Taeil steps on the gas and speeds away. 

They're left in another neverending silence after that. Taeil wonders if he overstepped a line, seeing as it's only their first time meeting. They are practically strangers, after all, even with everything he's heard about Donghyuck from Taeyong. Donghyuck wonders if he overreacted. It wasn't  _ unreasonable _ of Taeil to ask him to do up his seatbelt, after all. Maybe Taeil will hate him now. Maybe he'll just see him as a little kid with daddy issues.

Donghyuck sighs.

"Look," says Taeil, somewhat tersely, "I'm sorry about what happened back there."

"Why are you apologising?" Donghyuck blurts out aggressively. "It was my fault anyway."

"Maybe, but I shouldn't have acted like that when we barely know each other," Taeil answers. He sneaks a brief glance at Donghyuck before returning his gaze to the road ahead. "It wasn't my place to tell you to do anything."

"But it was for my own safety," Donghyuck argues. He knows he's agreeing with Taeil's original point, but it still feels like arguing to him.

"Obviously."

"Hey!" 

Taeil finally smiles, and most of the tension in the air seems to dissipate. "I'm glad we're really on the same page," he says. "Game Night was actually a little more fun tonight."

"Really?" Donghyuck raises his eyebrows at him, unconvinced. "But it was literally just me and Johnny-hyung arguing for four hours."

"It was more entertaining than watching Johnny argue with himself."

"He does that?"

" _ Oh yeah _ ."

The silence turns into a kind of comfortable  _ quiet _ instead as they pull into Donghyuck's university site. Relieved, Donghyuck starts to think maybe Taeil doesn't hate him after all. Taeil starts to think the same way about him. 

"Which building are you?" Taeil asks, and his voice seems louder than the engine as they move through the campus, barely making a sound. (Donghyuck makes a mental note that someday he would like to own a Tesla outright, if owning a Tesla isn't completely lame by the time he can afford one.)

"Second on the right." Donghyuck points to the towering accommodation blocks ahead of them, with some of their windows still glowing like stars against the navy sky.

They stop outside the entrance of Donghyuck's building, dodging the drunk students wandering back to their accommodation after a night out cut short. Taeil keeps the engine running, but there's an awkward pause like he wants to say something. Donghyuck bites his lip. The atmosphere in the car is weirdly tense now, like the night isn't quite over but it should be. He grabs his backpack from the floor and opens the car door, swinging a leg out onto the pavement.

"Hey, Donghyuck—"

"Thanks for the ride," Donghyuck blurts. He forces a tiny smile in the driver's direction and legs it out of the car. 

Taeil reaches out to pull the door shut, but Donghyuck slams it and runs up the steps to his building. Taeil watches him go, words dying on his lips. "See you next week," he mutters. 

Donghyuck doesn't dare to even glance back at the black Tesla on his way into the building. He hurries inside and takes the elevator up to the fourth floor, forgetting that it's nearly midnight when he opens his dorm room door with a clatter. There’s a disgruntled sound of annoyance from somewhere in the dark. Donghyuck sighs as he fumbles for the light switch. It would be useless to try and be quiet now, because there’s no way he can possibly avoid the round of complaints that— 

“Seriously,” his roommate groans. He’s just a lump under the duvet on the other side of the room, and this is just the start. His name is Liu Yangyang, and he’s one of Donghyuck’s least favourite people, although that puts him on quite a long list. 

“Well,” Donghyuck inhales, “you’re awake now, so—”

“And I was asleep twenty seconds ago, so thanks,” Yangyang snaps back, emerging from under the blankets. He blinks in the sudden flood of light, scrunching up his face before glaring in Donghyuck’s direction. “You said you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.”

He says it like an accusation, and Donghyuck feels attacked. “Yeah, well maybe I changed my mind,” he says defensively. “It’s not like it’s even late.”

Yangyang’s glow-in-the-dark alarm clock says differently. (It’s expensive, apparently, and his parents bought it for him the last time he was in  Düsseldorf . The fact that he’s rich - and brags about it - makes Donghyuck hate him all the more. Well, that’s on top of the fact that the guy is outgoing, attractive and funny, speaks four different languages, plays soccer, is his academic superior in every way, and has girls hanging off his every word.)

“You know I have soccer practise on Thursdays,” Yangyang says. His tone is pretty bitter, and Donghyuck would feel bad for waking him up if Yangyang wasn’t such a prick.

“How sad for you,” Donghyuck mutters. He dumps his backpack at the end of his bed, kicks off his battered Nikes, and sinks into the mattress in a huff. 

Yangyang rolls onto his side and narrows his eyes at the boy sulking on the other side of the room. Donghyuck’s refusing to look at him. “Can you at least turn the light off?” he complains. “I have to wake up at five AM.”

“Like anyone fucking cares.” But the light goes off and Donghyuck curls up in bed, facing the wall.

“Geez,” Yangyang says under his breath, his voice muffled into the pillow as he tries to fall asleep again. “This is why you don’t have any friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully this fic is giving off sit-com, family tv show vibes :) leave me a comment and let me know what you think! i'll be working on this for a while (as it'll probably go on for a lot longer than i intended)


	3. Taeil's Wii

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johnny doesn't follow the Nintendo safety guidelines.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't usually feel the need to put trigger warnings, however: tw/ blood & description of injury

They order fried chicken instead of pizza the next time the four of them convene at Johnny and Taeyong’s place. It’s another Wednesday Family Game Night, except it’s not exactly family this time either, since Taeil shows up again in his Tesla, and the only person from Taeyong’s actual family that rocks up is Donghyuck. But Johnny’s working on it - the whole  _ being accepted into Taeyong’s family  _ thing. Kind of. Last week, he drove past Taeyong’s parents’ place with a cake, but chickened out and drove off before he could even approach the house. It’s a work in progress at best.

“Babe, why don’t you let Taeil sort it?” Taeyong asks. He’s sitting on the couch waiting for his boyfriend to give up already, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. 

Johnny’s on the floor by the TV, fiddling around with wires to try and set things up in order for Game Night to actually start. “I can make it work!” he insists, a little out of breath. “Why would Taeil be better at it than me?”

“...Because it’s Taeil’s Wii?”

Both Taeil and Donghyuck are standing over the American, also waiting for him to give up. Donghyuck is eating pieces of fried chicken like they’re on a conveyor belt into his mouth, while Taeil is checking his messages to make sure his manager doesn’t want him for anything. Johnny is extremely determined to set up the Wii himself, because admitting defeat now would be embarrassing. (He doesn’t quite realise that admitting defeat much later would be more than embarrassing - it would be verging on humiliating.)

“Hyung, just give up,” Donghyuck says around a large piece of chicken, almost spitting it out in the process. Taeil mindlessly hands him a tissue.

Johnny sits back on his heels, pouting. “Fine,” he says. “But I’m not giving up. I’m just letting Taeil have a go.” 

Taeyong rolls his eyes and beckons him over. “Just come here,” he says fondly, wrapping Johnny in a hug of sympathy the moment he reaches the couch.

Taeil sets the Wii up in one minute and forty-eight seconds. (Not that Donghyuck was counting.) 

“Yay!” Taeyong exclaims. He jumps to his feet the moment Taeil finishes showing off his physical prowess (if setting up a Wii console even counts as ‘physical prowess’) and leaves Johnny behind on the sofa to hug his best friend from behind. “Now we can play tennis!”

“No one wants to play Wii Sports, hyung,” Donghyuck mutters, looking over at the two of them with narrowed eyes. 

“Yeah,  _ hyung _ ,” says Johnny, looking rather betrayed. “I mean…  _ yeah _ … baby,” he corrects himself. He stays sulking on the couch, watching his boyfriend hug another man like that. It’s fine. He doesn’t care. Obviously.

Taeil just smiles and pats Taeyong’s hands, which have latched themselves around his waist. “We can play tennis later, right?” he says. “How about Mario Kart first?”

Donghyuck sighs loudly after swallowing the last of his chicken. He wipes his greasy fingers on his sweatpants and grabs one of the Wii remotes. “Still lame,” he says, “but I guess I’ll have to beat you guys quickly and get it over with.”

“I’m pretty sure you said that  _ last week _ ,” Johnny says in a sing-song tone. He clambers off the sofa to physically separate Taeil and Taeyong, and grab a Wii remote in the process. 

Donghyuck rolls his eyes so hard he thinks he might strain them.

After much deliberation, they all finally decide on which characters they want to play as, and which combinations of wheels and parachutes make the best car. This, of course, triggers an entire debate over car brands, in which Johnny becomes the PR manager for Hyundai, and everyone else has to listen to him whine. Taeyong plays as Baby Peach, Taeil as Mario, Donghyuck as Toad, and Johnny as Donkey Kong. 

“Why would you play as Mario?” Donghyuck accuses.

To Taeil, it sounds vaguely like the wheelbarrow question from last week. “Because it’s literally called Mario Kart?”

“Yeah, but no one actually plays as Mario.”

Taeyong sighs. “Hyuckie, you can’t say much. You’re playing as Toad.”

“And you’re playing as Baby Peach,” Donghyuck retorts.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Johnny says impatiently. “We already know I’m the only one who chose a cool character. Can we start?”

And then the real competition begins.

Or at least, the competition between Donghyuck and Johnny begins, because it’s a team race with four rounds — Donghyuck on the blue team with Taeil, and Johnny and Taeyong on red. 

“We are going to  _ destroy _ you,” Johnny says as they’re all waiting at the starting line. He’s perched on the edge of the sofa, eyes fixed on the screen. It doesn’t take much for his competitive streak to show.

Donghyuck scoffs with an air of arrogance. “No, you’re not.”

“Yes, we are!” Johnny insists. His eyes dart towards Donghyuck, but he doesn’t have enough time to glare at him before the race starts. 

“Not when you have Taeyong-hyung on your team,” Donghyuck says smugly, before speeding ahead of Johnny on the racetrack. He doesn’t even have that much confidence in Taeil’s Mario Kart skills — he just knows what kind of games Taeyong likes to play. Racing games don’t really make the list. 

“Hyuckie, that is so unfair!” Taeyong exclaims. He bites his lip and tries to concentrate on the game, but too many of the NPCs are shoving him aside and attacking him with shells. “Why did I just drive off the edge?” he says in soft disappointment.

“Because your car has shit handling?” Donghyuck suggests.

Johnny reaches out a leg to kick Donghyuck in the ribs from where he’s sitting. He isn’t exactly looking where to aim though, so his foot comes extremely close to hitting a rather more sensitive area. (It’s lucky it doesn’t though, because Angry Donghyuck combined with Donghyuck In Pain would probably result in a bloodbath.) “Maybe because  _ someone  _ chose Wario’s Gold Mine?” Johnny says as an alternative suggestion, in his best attempt to comfort Taeyong.

“It’s a good track!” Donghyuck insists. “It’s not my fault you guys can’t drive. Back me up on this, hyung.” He nudges Taeil’s arm for some kind of response, but Taeil is too busy concentrating on driving safely to answer. The two of them are sitting side by side on the beanbags in front of the couch, with the opposing team sitting behind them.

In the end, Donghyuck comes first. Johnny, begrudgingly, comes in second, Taeil fourth, and Taeyong eleventh. 

“I didn’t come last!” Taeyong smiles, somewhat satisfied with the outcome.

“You did good, baby,” Johnny says, but he’s eager to try and beat Donghyuck again. “Alright, next race.”

“Oh, so we’re not gonna talk about the fact that I won?” Donghyuck tilts his head back to shoot Johnny a smug look of victory.

Johnny snorts. “You haven’t won yet, kid,” he says. “It's best of four.”

The competition goes on, with a rather eventful Rainbow Road experience which has Taeyong screaming, until the results are ready. Out of the four races, Donghyuck wins the first, Johnny wins the second and third, and surprisingly — Taeil wins the last.

“I can’t believe you actually won,” Donghyuck remarks.

Taeil laughs and elbows him gently. “Hey, have a little confidence in me, please,” he says. “I used to play a lot of Mario Kart when I was in college. It just took me a while to get warmed up.”

“Yeah, three whole races apparently,” Donghyuck replies, laughing alongside his teammate. It feels… natural somehow, the way they can just laugh together about almost nothing. Donghyuck suddenly notices the warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest and he stops laughing. 

“What?!” Johnny screeches as the results appear on the screen. He jumps to his feet in protest.

The blue team won. 

“Ah, the sweet smell of victory,” Donghyuck says. He brushes off the weird feeling he gets around Taeil, ignoring it in order to celebrate properly.

“But I won two races!” Johnny objects. He looks physically heartbroken. 

“You can’t win everything, Johnny,” Taeil tries his best to reason out. 

“But the red team always wins,” Johnny says, sitting down slowly again. “I’m always on the red team, and we always win.”

“Better luck next time, hyung.” Donghyuck stretches out his arms and sighs contentedly. “That’s what you get for picking Taeyong-hyung to be on your team.”

Johnny opens his mouth to agree with him, but looks over at his boyfriend and instantly feels terrible. He then begins to try and defend Taeyong’s Mario Kart skills, but it doesn’t really do much. “No, baby, you’re not  _ bad _ ,” he says quickly, flinging an arm over Taeyong’s shoulders. “I wanted to be on your team! You were… um… a really cute Baby Peach, and I… yeah, so, um…”

“Whatever, no one cares that I suck at Mario Kart,” Taeyong whines, folding his arms across his chest. “So can we play tennis now or what?”

And though nobody else really wants to play tennis, Johnny death-glares the other two into cooperation in an attempt to make Taeyong happy, and the Wii Sports disc goes in. They keep the same teams and play their way through several rounds of doubles — in which Taeyong somehow manages to win almost every game. It’s like his college tennis skills have been reawakened, from when he and Taeil used to play on the Wii in their dorm. Once several hours have passed and all the fried chicken has been demolished, Donghyuck and Johnny decide to compete again with a game of baseball whilst Taeil helps Taeyong clean up. 

“I’ll bat first,” Donghyuck says quickly.

The two of them stand in the small space between the TV and the couch, and get ready to start. Donghyuck swings a couple of good shots, and then enough home runs that Johnny starts getting anxious. By the time it’s his turn to bat, Johnny’s a bundle of competitive energy, warming up on the spot like it’s an actual game and not just a simulation. 

Donghyuck bowls. Johnny swings.

He misses.

“Fucking stupid game.”

Donghyuck hides the loudest scoff ever and bowls again. This time, Johnny swings his arm back with so much vigor that he’s certain he’ll hit the baseball at the right time.

Except he isn’t wearing the Wii remote safety strap.

“Ow! Fucking shit!”

When Johnny turns around, his Wii remote has been flung out of his hand… and into Donghyuck’s nose — which is already bleeding rapidly through his fingers. Johnny can’t do anything in the moment but gape.

At the sound of his younger brother screaming, Taeyong comes back from the kitchen, as if summoned by the sound of pain. “What’s going on now—? OH MY GOD, HYUCK—” 

Chaos ensues.

For what feels like an eon to Donghyuck (but is really probably only a minute or two), Johnny stands there not knowing what to do while Taeyong runs around multi-tasking — scrambling to find  _ something _ to mop up Donghyuck's bleeding nose, and yelling at Johnny for answers at the same time. Taeil is the only ounce of sanity in the apartment, with his calm voice telling Donghyuck not to panic.

(Not that he  _ is _ panicking, or anything. But when your brother's boyfriend flings a Wii remote into your face, the shock itself is enough to make anyone angry.)

“Why would you throw it in my fucking face?!” he yells at Johnny, ready to square up and hit him back.

“I didn't mean to!” Johnny defends himself, looking both extremely guilty and stunned at the same time. “It just fell out of my hand!”

Feeling the blood pouring out of his nose, Donghyuck lets out a noise of complaint and looks to the ceiling. He flings a few more curses and expletives in Johnny's direction.

“Don't look up, look down,” Taeil advises. He places a warm hand on the back of Donghyuck's neck to encourage him to follow the first aid instructions, and his other hand closes around Donghyuck's — to help stop the blood from dripping onto the floorboards. “Or the blood will go down your throat instead of out your nose,” he adds.

“That's fucking disgusting, hyung,” Donghyuck mumbles, but there's something about how close Taeil is, or the constant steadiness of his presence that makes the anger dissipate for a moment.

“I know,” Taeil says gently.

Something twists in Donghyuck's chest, and he's pretty sure it isn't nosebleed related.

Taeyong returns with a mountain of toilet roll and passes it to Donghyuck to hold against his nose. “What exactly happened here?” he demands.

“I didn't mean—”

“He threw it in my face!”

Taeyong sighs. He looks at Johnny with a pair of very big, very serious eyes. “You didn't wear the wrist strap, did you,” he says gravely.

Johnny opens his mouth to respond with a half-hearted lie, but there's something about late-night, tired Taeyong with his messy hair and big eyes that draws out the truth. “No,” he admits quietly.

Taeyong inhales, still trying to help Donghyuck whilst not losing his temper. “They have safety rules for a reason, Johnny!” he says. “I thought it was just to protect your TV, but apparently it's also to protect your little brother's nose.”

"It was an accident!" Johnny protests. The baseball game is still playing in the background, and the music isn't exactly making the situation any better.

"Which is why they have the safety strap in the first place!" Taeyong says, exasperated. In some ways, Johnny and Donghyuck are too similar - both stubborn and competitive, and rarely known to apologise. And as hard as Taeyong tries, he can’t think of a realistic solution to this argument.

“It’s not my fault—”

“It’s always your fault!” Donghyuck interjects. He’s becoming increasingly sour the more he begins to register the pain in his nose. “How can it be anyone else’s fault when you’re the one who broke my fucking nose?”

Johnny tries to keep calm. It doesn’t entirely work. “Now you’re being overdramatic,” he says, in a way that’s a little too condescending to the ear.

“Oh, I’m being overdramatic?” Donghyuck scoffs. “I’m not the one who has to win everything all the time.”

“I don’t—”

“You always have to have everything  _ your way _ ,” Donghyuck taunts.

“Don’t fucking speak to me like that—”

It’s the final straw for Donghyuck. His nose is throbbing and it might be broken and all he can do is take out his rage on this gigantic American idiot. “You ever maybe stop and think,” he starts, his voice rapidly increasing in volume, “that this is why nobody in our family  _ likes _ you!?”

_ Silence. _

And then chaos.

“Right, I'll give you more than just a nosebleed—” Johnny squares up for a fight, with nothing but the alcohol and Donghyuck's annoying voice egging him on.

“Alright that's enough,” Taeyong says sharply. “Johnny, go in the freezer and find something… well, something frozen.”

Johnny's eyes dart between his potential opponent and his pleading boyfriend and he eventually backs down. “Fine,” he says, and slinks off into the kitchen.

The apartment is quiet again. Taeil's hand is still warm on the back of Donghyuck's neck so his attention is instantly drawn to that instead of Johnny's dramatic exit. Butterflies swarm in his chest and his stomach churns, and he isn't sure whether it's the loss of blood or the smell of Taeil's cologne that's making him feel faint. He hasn't felt like this before about anyone, and part of him wants to blame the sudden burst of symptoms solely on the nosebleed.

“Hey, sit down,” Taeil murmurs, guiding Donghyuck slowly to sit on the couch behind them. It's only now that Donghyuck realises how weak his knees feel.

Why does he keep feeling this way around Taeil? It's like he can barely breathe. And Taeil, of all people. Moon Taeil — his older brother's kind of  _ lame _ best friend, who works in a bank. 

Worse than that, though — Moon Taeil is most definitely a  _ guy _ .

Donghyuck feels a tiny bit queasy.

“I'm sure it's not serious,” Taeil says, and for a second Donghyuck panics (is his apparent crush on Taeil really not serious?) but then realises Taeil can't read his mind. “I doubt your nose is broken, but I can take you to the hospital if it might be.”

Now he's absent-mindedly playing with the overgrown hair at Donghyuck's nape, and it's making Donghyuck's stomach perform an entire acrobatic routine. Donghyuck's mind takes him through a whole series of thoughts about wanting to rake his fingers through Taeil's short crop of dark hair and plant kisses on his temples and  _ shit _ —  _ is this what a gay panic feels like?  _ Because Donghyuck is in Full Panic Mode.

(Even in the middle of a torrential nosebleed.)

Taeyong sighs and stares at the mass of toilet paper he still has in his hands. “I hope it isn't broken,” he says. “Here,” he adds, dumping the rest of the toilet paper in Taeil's lap and turning to make a beeline for the kitchen.

When he gets there, Johnny is sitting in front of the freezer with a look of confusion on his face.

“Did you find anything?” Taeyong asks.

Johnny holds up a packet of frozen meat and shrugs.

“Not  _ pork _ ,” Taeyong groans. He gets down on his knees to rummage through the freezer himself. “I meant… I don't know… like frozen vegetables or something.”

“...But we've already eaten.”

That's when Taeyong laughs. “For Hyuck's nose, you idiot,” he says, but he meets Johnny's frown with a fond smile. 

“ _ Ohhh… _ right.”

Taeyong pulls out a bag of frozen peas from the very bottom of the freezer and turns the packet over to try and find the expiry date. “Jesus,” he says in disbelief. “You'll never guess what the use-by date is on these.”

Johnny shoots him a quizzical look.

“2015.”

“Wait, what?” Johnny lets out a sudden burst of laughter. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Taeyong says, shaking his head. “They must be from my old freezer, before we even moved in together.”

Johnny smiles. “Guess we both just hate peas.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poor donghyuck lmao
> 
> drop me a comment! it literally makes my day to read them :)


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